Being in the moment involves embracing change and the churning of reality. Patience, anonymous charity, ever evolving in LVX (lux, light) Life Death and Flux. A sort of surrender to All(ah) unfolding over time, moment by moment. After all, HaShem’s four letters correspond to the Tree of Life and the four quarters of breath, the sacred bolt; breathe deep with the One and All and Movement.
Emanation, creation, formation, action.
“There is a common misconception that the good things in life come from being in the right
place at the right time. In truth, everything that is good comes from being on the right channel with the right reception.
This is what the sages call z’chut—sometimes translated as “merit.” What it really means is a kind of fine-tuning of the soul.
How do you fine-tune the soul? You have three knobs: What you do, what you say and what you think. Adjust them carefully for static-clean reception.”
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
via http://facebook.lightsofkabbalah
With that, and the following observations at my station, I took a step back from Facebook, though I do appreciate some of its services as human networks are indeed wondrous! Wondrous in a way as to remind me of a quote dubiously said to be spoken by a king, “My magician’s have their heads in the highest heavens and their feet in the lowest hells!”
Reminiscent of Dark Forest Theory, Yuval Noah Harari spoke with Sam Harris about mutually assured destruction. Humanity faces various existential threats now (nuclear war) and in the future (AI), with some threats coming from human enemies (cyber warfare) and some from a common enemy/ourselves/no enemy (climate change). Yuval pointed out how the common enemy of mutually assured destruction itself may be our salvation. When two parties recognize that it is in their best interest to avoid any potential catastrophies with nuclear war, because of the mutually assured destruction that can come with such a path, they step back from that precipice. The same applies for future potential catastrophies both parties might pursue or affect, like AI or even climate change. ‘The only way to assure I am not destroyed is to work together with them to ensure none of us get destroyed.’ By recognizing the potential for mutually assured destruction, we can work together to overcome existential risks.
Dark Forest theory is from Chinese Sci-Fi series In Remembrance of Earth’s Past, also known as Three Body Problem. It focuses on various existential threats at a bewildering set of scales, from neighboring alien civilizations’ mutually assured destruction, to the mutually assured destruction of All in the Universe.
Are mystical practices commonly found in perennial philosophy to be considered idolatry (as in, a breaking of one of the prime commandments of Abbrahamic spiritual currents)?
There are a range of mystical practices which could be considered idolatry. From the purely mental (contemplative) to utterly concrete (tangible offerings, alters, amulets and mezuzahs, and shrines) and a wide variety in between (contemplation of tangible things, from the more subtle like the Tarot, to the more gross like natural phenomenon in light of animism). To understand what qualifies as idolatry, we need to first define idolatry, which is not as clear as one may initially think.
Humility.
Let it be or intervene. Even in the simple act of eating, is one creating or destroying potential? Someone else could have had that grain. That grain could have become a whole ‘nother mother.
Such suffering. The one lashing out suffers themselves; whether they recognize it or not, they harbor suffering. Rather than pray for their decay, pray for their transmutation; when all is whittled away at the end of the day, some toxins persist. This is why “two wrongs do not make a right”: to respond to the propagation of suffering with further propagation of suffering does not decrease suffering.
Put yourself in another’s shoes. We all suffer at times. Why would you behave in such a way as to cause the suffering of another? If you are at peace, would you cause such suffering?
May peace be upon oneself.
